October 31, 2021
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Mark 12:28-34[1]
This is a sermon in two parts. The first focuses on
Halloween, the second on the Great Commandment.
Halloween has a bad reputation. Many Christians view
Halloween as a celebration of death or evil. Some point to pagan origins for
the holiday, its ties to witchcraft, or even the use of apples as a symbol of
sin. I think we are fortunate to live in a community that is a bit more relaxed
about what is, at least now, a playful holiday.
There is a Gaelic autumn festival called Samhain which marks
the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. The celebration
begins the evening of October 31, the eve of the Christian celebration of All
Saints Day, or All Halos Day. Halos Eve over time becomes the word Halloween.
The date is about halfway between the autumn equinox and winter solstice. Early
Irish literature says that Samhain was marked by great gatherings and feasts,
when cattle were brought down from the summer pastures and livestock were
slaughtered. Special bonfires were lit and sacrifices were made to pagan gods
to ensure the people and their livestock survived the winter.
Samhain was a liminal or threshold festival, when the
boundary between this world and the spirit world was thin, meaning spirits
could more easily come into our world. The souls of dead kin were also thought
to revisit their homes seeking hospitality, and a place was set for them at the
table during a Samhain meal. People went door-to-door in costume reciting
verses in exchange for food. Costumes were a way of disguising oneself from the
spirits.
So, Halloween does have Celtic pagan origins. But the same
can be said for Christmas and Easter, which have links to former pagan holidays
as well. During the early centuries, when the new Christian faith was a small
and often persecuted religion, many Christian festivals were hidden by
occurring at the same time as other religious feast days.
Women often had important roles in pagan religions, and the
heavily male-oriented Christians often viewed them as evil. Witches were
believed to have magical, supernatural powers. Sickness and mental illnesses
were believed to be caused by curses or evil magic. Women with knowledge about
healing herbs were sometimes seen as making magic potions. Fertility rituals
and celebrations honoring the dead around the time of Halloween were viewed as
communicating with evil spirits.
Many Celtic festivities involved rituals intended to divine
the future, especially with regard to death and marriage. Apples were often
used in these divination rituals or games. In Celtic mythology, apples were
strongly associated with the Otherworld and immortality. A common game was apple
bobbing. Somehow, the Genesis story got mixed in here. By eating the forbidden
fruit in the garden, Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world. For
some Christians, the fruit itself, not the act of disobedience, was the source
of sin and death. Even though apples are not mentioned in that story, the use
of apples in pagan rituals must have indicated their evil power.
All of this illustrates a fragile Christian faith. Evil and
magic are given too much power by weak theology. Rather than embracing other
cultures, fear of the unknown has led some Christians to label outside
influence as evil. Yet, early in the life of the Church, as new Christians were
converted from Judaism, and Greek and Roman religions, Paul wrote to the church
in Colossae that the bringing of festivals and incorporating them into their
new faith was not to be judged. “Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in
matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths.”[2]
All things come into fullness in Christ, and God is not threatened or
diminished by human ways of thinking.
If we choose to remember those who have passed on while
looking forward to the excitement of the new that God is bringing, that is good.
People wore costumes and masks to hide from evil spirits, now we wear them for
fun. Bonfires and food shared with others don’t need to be vilified. Instead of
fearing the way that others celebrate harvest and life, we can let our children
celebrate a fun holiday, and maybe we can get dressed up and eat an apple or
two.
Now, the scripture passage we read today speaks of loving
God and neighbor. I think it ties in well with how we look at an ancient pagan
festival. Does celebrating Halloween cause us to turn away from God or hate our
neighbor? It certainly doesn’t have to. Pretending to face up to scary monsters
helps us prepare to face the real monsters and frightening things we face in
life. Going door to door to share candy can help us meet our neighbors and
draws our communities closer together.
Some folk speak of the bible as a guidebook for life. If any
passage were truly meant to be understood as the rule for living a good life,
it is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as
yourself. This is the framework on which all theological and ethical thinking
and conduct is built. Paul even wrote to the Galatians, “The whole law is
summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”[3]
Of all the rules and laws and religious ordinances, none is more universal than
the love of God and neighbor.
When the scribe asks Jesus which commandment is the
greatest, he affirms the Jewish foundation of his teaching and ministry and
expands it to encompass so much more. The first commandment Jesus gives comes
from Deuteronomy, a passage known in Judaism by its first word: Shema,
meaning to listen or heed. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord
is our God, the Lord alone. You
shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”[4]
If you have ever visited the home of a practicing Jew, you may have seen a
mezuza on the doorframe, a small scroll-shaped object adorned with the Hebrew
letter Shin, which looks like a W. Inside the mezuza is a small piece of
paper with this scripture written on it. This important passage is said as a
prayer in morning and evening Jewish prayer services.
This commandment, this prayer, calls for our devotion and
commitment to God. It is a foundational creed of the faith from which Jesus
comes, and it remains the foundation of what will come after. As Jesus nears
Jerusalem, and faces ever-more sharp critique from the religious authorities,
this moment emphasizes that his authority comes from the foundations of their
faith. The scribes have opposed Jesus at every step, and he has repeatedly
pointed out their corrupt practices. Yet here a scribe commends Jesus for his
insight, for reminding him that more important than all the burnt offerings and
sacrifices is the love of God and neighbor.
The ethical call to do justice and care for the poor, the
widow, the orphan, and the stranger is distilled into the love of neighbor.
Like a lens can focus light to a point, it can also spread it out to shine on
much more. The lens of the gospel expands our love of neighbor into a call to
love the homeless veteran, the drug addict, the transsexual, the migrant
worker, and the refugee. As a moral guide, we can do no better than to love our
neighbor as ourselves.
The work of living out our love of neighbor is the hard
part. That’s where we’re asked to pick up our cross and follow Jesus. It is not
easy to love those we’ve been taught are not worthy of our love. It is hard
work to take responsibility for the well-being of others. But we can do it when
we are moved by love, for when we love God with all that we are, God loves us
back in all that we are and makes the work of love possible.
Shema Yisrael: Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Eḥad. Hear, O Israel,
the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. “‘You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all
your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.”[5] Amen.
[1] The
scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2]
Colossians 2:16.
[3]
Galatians 5:14.
[4]
Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
[5]
Mark 12:30-31.
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